New Delhi: Families of more than half-a-dozen victims of the firecracker explosion that took place in Gujarat on April 1 have alleged that bodies of their loved ones were handed over to the authorities of the Madhya Pradesh government without their consent.
The family members, who sat on protest outside the Deesa civil hospital on Wednesday (April 2) said that they were not allowed to see the bodies, reported The Hindu.
Chander Singh Nayak, father of 23-year-old victim Sunit has written a petition to the Chief Minister of Gujarat, alleging that that family members the victims, were not given a chance to the see the remains of their loved ones, even though they had intimated the district authorities that they were on their way from Madhya Pradesh to identify them.
Nayak added that they had not been given copies of the post-mortem reports either.
Madhya Pradesh minister Nagar Singh Chouhan, who is coordinating the return of the bodies, denied claims that the families and alleged that some people were “politicising” the issue. Chouhan added that families of some victims had arrived late so they could not see the bodies.
Congress MLA Jignesh Mevani met the family members from Madhya Pradesh on Wednesday afternoon at hospital and termed the incident as bigger than the 2020 gangrape and murder in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras.
Mevani alleged that there was a conspiracy to “hide the bodies” so that a fair probe could be skirted.
At least 21 workers, including 7 children, have died in the blast that caused a massive blaze at a firecracker warehouse in the outskirts of Deesa town in Gujarat’s Banaskantha district on Tuesday. Six more people were injured in the incident.
Most of the workers were from Madhya Pradesh.
The Banaskantha police had registered an FIR on Tuesday and booked the two accused on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
